INTERPRETING ROADS IN ROADLESS AREAS - ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE, AMBIGUITY, AND CHANGE IN AGENCY RESPONSES TO POLICY MANDATES

This article examines how Bureau of Land Management personnel interpre ted roads in the context of wilderness policy implementation. It asses ses ambiguity of and change in policy using three frameworks from the organizational culture literature. The frameworks emphasize (a) shared understandings, (b) differences among agency units, and (c) fragmenta tion within units. The analysis shows how interpretations of roads are shaped by existing understandings and provide opportunities for new u nderstandings to develop. It also shows how policy initiatives can be understood as simultaneously requiring organization-wide change, selec tive change, and no change. This suggests that using multiple analytic al frames is important for understanding the implementation of ambiguo us and changing policy.